Descent
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Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Rosario Dawson
  • Summary: A promising college student becomes bent on seeking revenge after a shocking act of violence is committed on her. Descent is a film that unnervingly tackles some of the country's most taboo subjects. (City Lights Pictures)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 10
  3. Negative: 4 out of 10
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    75
    It's been a while since we saw a demagogic feminist exploitation revenge drama, and Descent, while top-heavy with ''agenda,'' is shrewdly done.
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    60
    A well-acted trifle straining to be a hard-hitting morality play.
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    38
    Too elliptical to be convincing.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    30
    Depending on your revenge story preferences, the brutally pretentious Descent is either a payback flick with an agonizingly formless middle, or a soul-darkening head trip bracketed by a crude vengeance tale. Mostly, though, it's indie provocation trapped between shock and blah.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. ChadS.
    4
    French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once said that "cinema history is the history of boys photographing girls." Where this filmmaker is coming from, one can only stare saucer-eyed with begrudging admiration, but the Godard quote isn't a bad place to start, as we watch Maya(Rosario Dawson) anally probe Jared(Chad Faust). Ready or not, the American cinema now has a sexual provocateur of its very own, a female filmmaker cut from the same mold as France's Catherine Breillat, whose fearless use of graphic sex may result in high-brow "adult" films such as "Romance" and "Fat Girl", rather than high-minded schlock like "Descent". First, the film puts us to sleep with its character-driven narrative, and then jars us awake by the unrepentant brutality of Maya's revenge plan. David Slade's "Hard Candy" makes the same mistake. When the tables are turned; the woman wins, but she loses the audience's sympathy. Arguably, even a pedophile, even a rapist, doesn't deserve to be tortured.… Expand
  2. RobbyT.
    2
    This movie feels like it was made by an amateur lesbian director who needs to ease up on the pills. See Hard Candy instead.

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